Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

Logicomix : nerouden ja hulluuden rajalla by Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos Papadimitriou

2 reviews

syliu's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 I’ll start with what’s good. 
 
     This novel appealed to my interest in witty thought experiments and silly philosophical discourse. Its many fun moments of intrigue and discovery definitely resonated with me, bringing me back to late nights I’ve spent with friends debating the same difficult topics of existence and morality, and how maths and logic interacts with life. 
    The illustrations are charming and well-arranged; add an abundance of classical allusions and the novel becomes thrillingly fun. Many of the themes explored were highly valuable: the logic of language; reconciling contradicting human experiences; investigating the link between logic and humanity, to name a few. 
     The addition of a historical element, the sheer size and scale of the World Wars, and a brief exploration of politics, aided well in the overall discussion about logic and reason. The alternating perspectives of Betrand Russell and a meta “present-day” perspective from Logicomix’s writers’ room help to present these themes while creating a playful, self-satirising atmosphere. 
      The book concluded in a highly satisfying way as the many separate themes were bound together neatly into a wider story about people, both as individuals and as a society, and our dreams and achievements. 
     In all, Logicomix delves into a passionately analytical life perspective not (in my opinion) often enough portrayed in a fun fictional setting. 
 
Clearly, I wanted to like this book. 
 
     However, the sexism and elitism of the main protagonist simply goes too far at times. Every woman in the book is a silly frolicking side character, unable to comprehend the impressive pioneering thoughts of the many, many ‘great’ male characters. The book seems to portray the singular role of women in society as being willing audiences for male monologues, and make well-timed ignorant comments to make men seem more intelligent. 
     One apt example was when Russell attempts to proclaim his love for his future wife Alys by leading her through a maze as a way of explaining Boolean logic. But Alys had zero interest in the subject, was too stupid to find her way out of the maze, and was thus finally resigned to sitting and crying, playing a kindergarten game of “he loves me-he loves me not” plucking flower petals while she waits for the great Russell to rescue her. It would’ve almost been less offensive if the fictional Russell had openly declared that all women are subhuman simpletons. 
     I could excuse this if the sexism were delegated solely to the historical perspective of Russell, serving to highlight another imperfection in his goals of pursuing ‘ultimate truth’. The alternative perspective in the modern-day writer’s room could have perfectly served to enter discourse with fictional Russell, pointing out his complacency in matters of justice or basic human decency. Unfortunately, it fails to do that, and leaves me with no choice but to assume that the authors of Logicomix more or less fail to disagree with Russell’s views. 
    It seems deeply ironical to me that a book discussing the importance of fundamental truth, logic from first principles, and the dangers of manipulative language in cultivating biased and irrational ideologies, could be so thoughtlessly sexist. Russell thought he was doing a great service to humanity when he turned his powers of logical reasoning to the World Wars, but fails to turn the same powers to his regard for half of the human population. Very disappointing to say the least. 
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hedsek's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging informative reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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